“You have better slang,” he answered, unstrapping from his seat.
I shifted in my seat to give the Queen her answer, but she was already gone. Creepy fucking lady.
“Are all aliens terrifying or is it just me?”
“Not all of them. There is this cute, tiny little species here that I think resembles Earth fairies,” Aga supplied helpfully.
Rathal cleared his throat. “They bite though. And a swarm of them can strip the flesh off your bones in under ten seconds.”
Wow.
“You two aren’t helping,” I grumbled, setting the ship down on the square of grass to the right of the greenhouse, blowing umbrellas and chairs off the small lawn with the belly jets heatwash.
Once the ship was down, I pressed the controls to lower the ramp.
Aga was already up and at the weapons rack that was built into the wall near the ramp. He jerked a plasma rifle out of its magnetic mounts.
“I’ll scout ahead. You two meet us at the rendezvous point in the palace’s Grand Hall once you’re done in the city.”
“Good luck,” I told him and the crocodile grinned and unsheathed his sword, the blue metal glowing.
“No luck needed,” he said and took off down the ramp.
I turned to Rathal with a raised brow. “And he calls you arrogant.”
My husband shrugged. “He is but a pale imitation, my love.”
Laughing, I throttled up, leaving Aga behind to head back into the city to see what kind of carnage Jack and her bloodthirsty family were up to.
Patty chose that moment to reach out via our links and nearly made me jump out of my skin.
Callie?
I grinned at the hopeful tentativeness to her tone. I’d fucking missed her. I answered in what was kind of becoming our group's catch phrase.
Surprise, bitch.
She squealed and I jerked away from the sound as if it wasn’t coming from inside my head.
You sneaky whore! I knew you’d be alright. Where the hell are you?
I was grinning like a lunatic and I didn't care.
Ground floor, the Grand Hall. Hurry the fuck up.
Well, I mean I wasn't there yet, but Aga would meet her there and then we’d be there after I mopped up the body parts and rivers of blood from the Rijiteran happy fun party that was probably going on throughout the city streets.
She didn’t say anything more but I could picture her dancing around Rema.
I looked at Rathal who was watching me with a soft expression.
“Find your friend?”
“Yeah,” I said, smiling so hard my cheeks ached.
The need to be back with all my friends was like a whip driving me. I reached over, flipping the switch to close the ramp and lifted off again, the belly jets screaming as I poured on the fuel.
Rathal grunted when I pitched the nose down and free fell down the cliff face before leveling off and pushing the throttle all the way forward towards the city. I sucked in a breath, my eyes going wide. Over the city white ships hovered like gliding condors. There were six of them, all roughly the size of modern aircraft carriers. The condor description fit well, as they were bird-like in shape though wider bodied with wings tilted forever in the downward sweep. On the underside of each ship, running parallel on either side of a fixed proton canon were dropped protrusions that at first I thought might be where some kind of landing gear was tucked away, but a dozen fang shaped doors opened upwards along the sides of the dropped portion of the ship and gleaming figures stepped into the doorways.
